We announced IBM Cient for Smart Work in India today at Lotusphere...This is all around ECOSYSTEM build out...1. Simmtronics, top 5 memory manufacturer in the world announced global agreement that ships ICSW on their Simmbooks in India, USA, and many other countries worldwide..2. In partnership with Canonical (primarily) and with Red Hat on a selective basis3. Academic Initiative center of excellences with 3 engineering colleges in the state of kerala4. ZSL announced Powercube DaaS in India, Africa, USA5. Zyxware, IBM and Canonical business partner piloting ICSW in Technopark in Kerala http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/29205.wss

'Death of the Desktop'

On desktops, "people still feel they need lots of local power and storage, even though their CPUs idle and they never back up their stuff," blogger
Robert Pogson told LinuxInsider.

However, "experience with netbooks will kill off the desktop within
a few years," Pogson predicted. "It makes little sense unless you need
all those drives, noise, heat, space and burning money. Those who
really need power will use a thin client connected to a server cluster."

Looking ahead, "expect GNU/Linux
to do just as well on notebooks as it did on netbooks," he added. "2009
was the year of GNU/Linux on the desktop as far as I am concerned. 2010
could well mark the death of the desktop and overweight notebooks."

1. Canonical (Ubuntu) and RedHat added to the Windows Client competitor list.2. "Netbooks opened Microsoft to the possibility that some other OS could
get its grip on the desktop, however briefly," said Rob Helm, director
of research for Directions on Microsoft. "Now it's alert to that
possibility going forward."
3. Concerned about OEM partners, HP and Intel supporting Linux on their PCs..

Freeform Dynamics reported based on input from 1275 survey responders worldwide that (a) cost reduction and security are major drivers, (b) ubuntu scored high, (c) after IT the low hanging fruit were General professional users (relatively light and predictable use of e-mail, office tools, etc) andTransaction workers (mostly using enterprise applications in a routine prescriptive manner) http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27562.wss

71% of respondents indicated cost reduction as their primary driver for adoption.

35% stated the ease of securing the desktop was another primary driver

32%
cited the lowering of overheads associated with maintenance and support
in general were factors contributing to the benefit of desktop Linux
adoption

Those with experience of
Linux desktop rollouts are 50% more likely to regard non-technical
users such as general professional users and transaction workers as
primary targets for Linux

58% of those with prior experience of a Linux desktop rollout see general professional users as primary targets

52% of those with prior experience of a Linux desktop rollout see transaction workers as primary targets.

32% of those with prior experience of a Linux desktop rollout see power users as primary targets.

47%
of respondents said usability was the main consideration when
evaluating or selecting a desktop Linux distribution for use in a
business environment

Virtual Bridges announced VERDE 2.0 available with desktop management infrastructure with disconnected use that can harness the local processing power. They already support virtual windows and linux desktops using the VDI connection broker and associated destop management/clustering. They also expanded their partner network by adding 16 additional resellers/systems integrators worldwide (http://vbridges.com/wp/?page_id=181; http://www.pr-inside.com/virtual-bridges-grows-worldwide-partner-r1270660.htm). They span Germany, France, England, Italy, South Africa, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico and the United States. One of them, Midas network is offering Desktop as a Service offering from Austin, Texas, USA.

"Our strategy is to focus on Linux first and foremost, taking a
practical and pragmatic approach," said Gianluca Giovannetti, CIO and
Director of Organization, Gruppo Amadori. "For us, the Linux
environment is the right choice for very focused applications and is
more cost effective than Microsoft."

"The biggest reason for Brooks' Ubuntu inclination isapplication availability. If there's a piece of Linux-supportingsoftware that you want to run, there's a good chance that it's beenpackaged up in a ready-to-install format for Ubuntu Linux. What's more,of all the operating systems he's used or reviewed, Ubuntu offers thebest set of tools for acquiring, installing, updating and removingapplications."